Some people may want to make jokes about Ron Thicke, given that he admitted he was drunk and high for the recording of “Blurred Lines” and the endless barrage of press and interviews that followed. But it’s kind of sad, so this is a joke-free zone.
Thicke’s deposition, taken during the legal fight with the family of the late Marvin Gaye, hit the internet recently and with it, the revelation that Thicke spent the majority of his time promoting the song under the influence.
“With all due respect,” he says in the deposition, “I was high and drunk every time I did an interview last year.” He also copped to lacking honesty and being willing to say whatever is necessary as long as it helped push albums.
The deposition took place in 2014, meaning that the year in question (2013) was the year “Blurred Lines” was everywhere – that wedding you went to, the majority of FM radio, the other wedding you went to, and multiple lead-ins to your favorite daytime talk show. Thicke was everywhere too, he just apparently wasn’t the least bit sober or honest, as he frequently talked about the influence Gaye had on him and how it was the genesis for “Blurred Lines,” which was proven to be false when he was deposed.
“I tell whatever I want to say to help sell records,” he says at one point.
According to the deposition, he wasn’t even sober during the recording of the song (he wouldn’t be the , which was revealed when Thicke was questioned about his involvement with writing the song alongside co-writer Pharrell Williams.
“To be honest, that’s the only part where — I was high on Vicodin and alcohol when I showed up at the studio. So my recollection is when we made the song, I thought I wanted — I — I wanted to be more involved than I actually was by the time, nine months later, it became a huge hit and I wanted credit. So I started kind of convincing myself that I was a little more part of it than I was and I — because I didn’t want him — I wanted some credit for this big hit. But the reality is, is that Pharrell had the beat and he wrote almost every single part of the song.”
Thicke, Williams and the song’s other co-writer, T.I., were found guilty in March of copyright infringement and ordered to pay and estimated $7.3 million. They are currently appealing the verdict.
(Via Time)
